Fuel-feeding device for internal-combustion engines.



n c. s.` BURTON. *FUEL re's'olNGllnEvlcE ron lNenNAlgcomsusnoN ENGINES.

'A PPLICATION FILED QULY'SLIMI.

` Patented Mar. 4,

nlvll Il IIIL..

CHARLES BURTON, OIF OAK PARK, ILLINOIS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 4, 1919.

Application filed .Tuly 9, 1917. Serial No. 179,581.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, CHARLES S. BURTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Oak Park, in the county of Cook and State of illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fuel-Feeding Devices for Internal-Combustion Engines, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a` part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide an improved construction in devices for `supplying liquid fuel to internal combustion engines. It consists in the elements and features of construction shown and described, as indicated in the claims.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a side elevation showing a portion of an engine of an automobile equipped with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a partly sectional side elevation showing in conventional form a vacuum fuel feed device, and in vertical section"the low level main supply tank and liquid fuel du-ct connections therein which constitute the distinguishing feature of this invention.

4 F ig. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing the invention applied directly to the float chamber of the carbureter without the intervention of the usual vacuum tankf-the float chamber being shown in axial section.

The engine intake manifold, l, is shown connected with a vacuum fuel feed device of familiar form comprising a supplemental reservoir, Q, for supplying the carbureter, and a so-called vacuum chamber, 3, into which the liquid fuel is lifted by the suction of the engine from a low level main tank, 4, and supplied by gravity to the reservoir, 2, the suction for so lifting the liquid being produced by a suction connection by means of the tube, 5, leading from the vacuum tank to the engine manifold. As thus far described, the structure is of familiar form and detail. The Jfeatures constituting the present invention are designed to overcome a detect which has been experienced in the use of vacuum fuel lced devices, arising from the fact that under certain conditions of service of the engine, the suction produced by the engine is liable to be inadequate to lift the liquid from the main low level tank to the vacuum chamber, and when such conditions continue for considerable time, as when ascending a long slope requiring the engine to run with a Wide-open throttle for a considerable time, the reservefuel accumulated in the reservoir, 2, becomes exhausted before it can be re-supplied from the main tank. This defect is overcome in the present device by an expedient which amounts substantially to causing the suction for lifting the liquid from the low tank to operate upon the liquid in the low tank in such a manner aS to atomize it by aspiration so that it is not thereafter lifted as a liquid column, but rather as a liquidfreighted air column, or at least a highly aerated liquid column which can be sustained by the .atmospheric pressure operating on the surface of the liquid in the main tank to a much greater height than that pressure would sustain a solid liquid column. Such aeration and aspiration is effected by means of the devices contained in the main low level supply tank, 4, which will now be described. At substantially the central point both in the length and width of the tank, 4, there is positioned and supported a tube, 9,' open at both ends, the lower end being a short distance above the bottom of the tank, and the upper end substantially at the high liquid level of the tank,--that is, at the highest level to which the tank is designed t0 be filled. In this tube there is contained a wick column, 10, heilig a cylinder of fibrous material suitable for rapidly absorbing liquid and becoming filled by capillary attraction to the top. This wick column protrudes below the bottom of the tube, f), to the bottom of the tank and extends above the top of Said tube nearly to the top ofthe tank. The pipe, 7, which connects the vacuum chamber, 3, with the tank, 4, has within the tank a mouth-piece consisting of a hood or inverted cup. 12, lodged on the top of the tube i), not making air-tight junction therewith, within which mouth-piece the upper end of the wick column, 10, protruding above the tube, E), extends, fitting therein loosely but without any wide aperture or interval between the encompassing wall of the hood and the outer surface of the intruding wick column. 'lhe upper end lof the hood, preferably tapers in conical form to its junction with the pipe, 7, or with the litting by Which said pipe is connected to the tank and the upper end et' the wick column may be co1'- rcspondingly tapered. 'llie operation of the device described is that the suction operating through the pipe, 7, draws in the air around the protruding end of the wick column with- 35 struction is shovvn in Fig. 3, in Which the in the hood, which protruding end of the column being saturated With the liquid dravvnA up by capillary attraction from the contents of the tank, yields the liquid to the entrainment of the film of air drawn forcibly in over the surface of said saturated Wick column, and thereby the pipe, 7 becomes filled with a highly aerated column or With air heavily freighted With liquid particles. In order that this mixture may not be drawn over from the vacuum chamber, 3, directly into the manifold, toso largev an extent as to over-enrich the explosive charge furnished to the manifold through the carbureter, thereI is provided at the discharge end of the pige, 7, in the vacuum chamber, 3, a baliie Iplate, a,

. against which the mixture discharges Which vperform the entire service by providing that chamber with a suction connection,'5a, and connecting the pipe, 7, for discharge directly in to said float chamber. Such con pipe,`7, terminates downwardly in the float chamber, 15,l its discharge mouth formed as a valve seat, in which a valve, 17, is adapted to be seated, said valve being carried upon the upper side of aninverted cup float, 18, which also serves as -a baie plate for precipitating the liquiddischarged yfrom the depending mouth of the pipe, 7. The necessaryva'cuous condition for causing suction'to operate through the pipe, 7 to dravv the liquid from the main supply tank, 4, in this construction is produced by means of a suction pipe, 5a, which connects the float chamber at the upper part thereof with the engine intake at some convenient point. It will be understood that the float, 18,'opcrates in the usual manner of floats in a carbureter ioat chamber to close the fuel,

inlet, Which is the mouth of., the pipe, 7, when the liquid accumulated in the float chamber reaches the predetermined .height for supplying the nozzle'.

lI claim ,1. In a vacuumfuel feeding device, in combination vvith a low level main supply tank, a reservoir at a higher level; a duct leading from the low level tank to said reservoir; avvick device positioned in the tank extending above the level of the liquid therein, the duct having a mouth-piece in the tank having its margin in close proximity to said Wick, and means for producing suction through the duct 2. In a structure such as set out in claim 1, the Wick being in columnar form, the

mouth-piece .being in the form of a Vhood .embracing the end of the Wick column protruding above the liquid.

3. In a structure such as set out in claim 2, a fixed tube in the tank extending nearly to the bottom thereof and open at the bottom, and extending to the high liquid level of the tank,` the columnar Wick occupying said tube and protruding from the bottom and top thereof.

4. In a structure such as set out in claim 1, the reservoir being the carbureter floatchamber, and the suction producing means being a duct leading from the upper part Avof that chamber to the engine intake.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Chicago, Illinois, this 27th dayof June, 1917 CHARLES S. BURTON. 

